Birds capturing Butterflies 
fingers the cases in which we have seen a bird 
chase a butterfly. 
Professor Poulton, being aware of this ob- 
jection, sets forth, on pp. 283-292 of Essays on 
Evolution, the evidence he has gathered in favour 
of the view that birds are the chief enemies of 
butterflies and other lepidoptera. 
As the result of five years’ observation in S. 
Africa, Mr G. A. K. Marshall was able to record 
some eight cases of birds capturing butterflies. 
In three cases the butterfly seized was warningly 
coloured, or, at any rate, conspicuous! In two 
of these eight cases the bird failed to capture 
its quarry ! 
Says Mr Marshall, “the fact that birds refrain 
from pursuing butterflies may be due rather to 
the difficulty in catching them than to any wide- 
spread distastefulness on the part of these 
insects.” 
During six years’ observation in India and 
Ceylon, Colonel Yerbury records some half 
dozen cases of birds capturing, or attempting to 
capture, insects. He writes: “In my opinion 
an all-sufficient reason for the rarity of the 
occurrence exists in the fact that in butterflies 
the edible matter is a minimum, while the inedible 
wings, etc., are a maximum.” 
Colonel C. T. Bingham in Burma states that 
between 1878 and 1891 he on two occasions 
witnessed the systematic hawking of butterflies 
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